Television
B&C: Moonves: Sweeps stunting backfires
B&C: Let's make a deal -- for CPs
B&C: Tauzin slams NFL deals
B&C: Divided FCC debates ownership
Telephony
WSJ: Telecom Competition Is Coming --- Sooner Than You Think
TelecomAM: Oregon Asks FCC For Waiver of E-Rate Matrix, Says All Schools
Financially Equal
TelecomAM: Court bars FCC From Using Pricing Standard In Section 271 Reviews
TelecomAM: Kennard 'Disappointed' By St. Louis Court's Ruling
TelecomAM: Supreme Court Leaves FCC Eighth Circuit Appeal In Limbo
Internet
WSJ: RealNetworks Plans Technology Pact With Sun in Move Away From
Microsoft
WP: PSINet's Quest for Independence
NYT: Three Giants of PC World Turn Focus to Speed
NYT: Internet Chat Rooms Becoming a Popular Forum for Business
NYT: Internet Group Challenges U.S. Over Web Addresses
Antitrust
NYT: Unlike Microsoft, Intel Opts to Speak Softly on Antitrust Issues
International
NYT: In Africa, Reality of Technology Falls Short
Lifestyles
NYT: Enter Geekdom's Diaper Dandy. Sigmund, Can You Explain This?
** Television **
Title: Moonves: Sweeps stunting backfires
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.34)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: Steve McClellan
Issue: Television Economics
Description: Delivering the keynote speech at a convention of television
programming executives last week, CBS Entertainment President Leslie Moonves
said that if broadcasters want to stop rating erosion, they must start with
scheduling and "stop shooting wads at each other come sweeps time."
"Competitive scheduling moves...may pass the testosterone test, but...they
cheat viewers, who often face viewing decisions that aren't good for them or
us," Mr. Moonves said. He continued by saying that even in the face of
ratings erosion, network television remains the first choice of advertisers
and will remain so for years to come -- especially if cable networks
continues with its current programming philosophy. In November, the top 50
cable shows were 22 theatrical movies not available to advertisers, 12
Nickelodeon kids shows, 16 sports events, wrestling, off-network repeats,
one news special, a music special and a handful of movies: "Hardly examples
of original comedy and drama, and collectively they had an average rating of
2.1," Mr. Moonves said.
Title: Let's make a deal -- for CPs
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.6)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: Chris McConnell
Issue: Spectrum/Television
Description: "It's the gold rush of the late 90's" says Paxson
Communications chief Bud Paxson. Broadcasters are scrambling to collect
leftover licenses that have been sitting idle at the Federal Communications
Commission. The deadline to make deals for construction permits is Friday,
January 30. "These construction permits aren't worth much without a concept
that will attract viewers," says Julius Genachowski, general counsel for USA
Network's broadcasting division and former policy advisor to ex-FCC Chairman
Reed Hundt. USA and other broadcasters think they have the winning concept.
So far construction permits have been worth millions -- Paxson has
reportedly paid $2.5 million for a license in Texas while the most expensive
ones have gone for $4 million. There are 90 commercial licenses available.
[Gosh, and this when broadcasters are crying about the costly transition to
digital TV -- think they figure to make money off that?]
Title: Tauzin slams NFL deals
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.19)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: Harry Jessell
Issue: Television Economics/Cable
Description: Speaking to the Association of Local Television Stations, Rep
Billy Tauzin (R-LA) expressed concern about the recently announced
television deals for National Football League games. Rep Tauzin is
especially concerned with the high price cable network ESPN paid for the
Sunday night package of games. ESPN will reportedly pass its costs on to
cable operators in the form of higher affiliate fees. Cable operators, in
turn, will pass their costs on to subscribers in rate hikes. In the end,
consumers could pay for this programming whether they watch it or not.
Title: Divided FCC debates ownership
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.22)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: Chris McConnell
Issue: Ownership
Description: Although it may not be on the Federal Communications Commission
Agenda until April, four FCC commissioners expressed concern over ownership
rules. Commissioners Powell and Furchtgott-Roth support a reevaluation of
ownership rules based on industry changes that have underminded the
rationales for barring companies from owning multiple stations within a
market. Commissioner Powell held up a TV Guide to stress his point that
there is plenty of programming diversity and Commissioner Furchtgott-Roth
said, "The role of the commission is to follow the law, not invent it." But
Commissioners Tristani and Ness stressed the need for diversity: "The
underpinning of democracy is to receive a wide diversity of voices,"
Commissioner Ness said.
** Telephony **
Title: Telecom Competition Is Coming --- Sooner Than You Think
Source: Wall Street Journal (Op-eds, A18)
http://wsj.com/
Issue: Competition
Description: In the two years since President Clinton signed the
Telecommunications Act of 1996, the prevailing wisdom has held that the
nation's progress toward competition for local telephone service has been
lamentably slow. Some of what the critics say has the ring of truth. True,
the big Bell companies still control more than 98% of the 155 million local
phone lines in the U.S. The big long distance players have not moved as
quickly as some had hoped to enter local markets. A series of mergers and
acquisitions has left the nation with fewer potential local telephone
competitors. And the federal courts have thrown the regulatory environment
into turmoil by tossing aside key portions of the act and the regulations it
spawned. But now a group of smaller companies have started to bring the
benefits of competition to key segments of the local communications market.
The new competitors are accomplishing this by battling in the marketplace
rather than the courts.
Title: Oregon Asks FCC For Waiver of E-Rate Matrix, Says All Schools
Financially Equal
Source: Telecom AM---jan. 26, 1998
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: EdTech/Universal Service
Description: Oregon's Dept. of Education has asked the FCC to waive its
sliding scale of subsidized "E-rate" discounts and allow a single statewide
discount for all Oregon schools because the state last year reformed school
financing to eliminate economically disadvantaged schools, ensuring each
student receives the same number of dollars and approximately the same
quality of education regardless of where they live.
Title: New Arizona Bills Would Redefine Telecom Firms' Relations With Local
Governments
Source: Telecom AM---jan. 26, 1998
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Role of Local Government
Description: Two bills introduced in the 1998 Arizona legislature would
redefine telecom companies's relations with local governments. The first
would allow local governments to impose a local gross receipts tax of up to
4% on telecom companies, provided the locality repeals all other
telecom-specific fees of taxes such as local franchise fees or right-of-way
privilege taxes. The bill would permit telecom companies to offer in-kind
services at fair market value to offset local gross receipts taxes due. The
second bill would relieve telecom companies from having to seek authority
from local governments to conduct business, and give the companies the legal
right to access public rights-of-way owned by local governments. This bill
would prohibit localities from imposing any non-cost-based fees or taxes on
telecom companies for construction permits or use of public rights-of-way.
Title: Court bars FCC From Using Pricing Standard In Section 271 Reviews
Source: Telecom AM---jan. 26, 1998
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Long Distance/Competition
Description: The Eighth U.S. Appeals Court ordered the FCC to stop using a
forward-looking pricing standard in reviewing Bell company Section 271
applications to enter long distance. It ordered the FCC to comply with its
ruling last year barring the Commission from setting nationwide pricing. The
Nat'l Assoc. of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, which asked for the order
along with the Bells, said it was "pleased" with the ruling.
Title: Kennard 'Disappointed' By St. Louis Court's Ruling
Source: Telecom AM---jan. 26, 1998
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Competition
Description: FCC Chairman Kennard said he was "disappointed" that "yet
another court decision will delay the benefits of competition." He said this
in the wake of the order by the U.S. Appeals Court that the FCC must "cease
and desist" applying pricing standards to Bell companies' long distance
applications. Meanwhile, AT&T said the order is "one more reason" why the
U.S. Supreme Court should hear an appeal of the St. Louis court's original
ruling striking down much of the FCC's interconnection order.
Title: Supreme Court Leaves FCC Eighth Circuit Appeal In Limbo
Source: Telecom AM---jan. 26, 1998
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Competition
Description: The Supreme Court left the telecom industry in limbo by ending
a closed-door meeting intended to decide whether it would hear appeals of
two recent rulings saying it would hear the case. At issue is whether the
court will hear several related appeals of the Eighth Court's decisions on
the FCC's interconnection order that competitors say hampered the FCC's
authority to oversee competition in the local phone market. The Court's
Friday list of appeals that it will hear did not include any of the St. Luis
decisions, but the court may add to the list on Monday.
** Internet **
Title: RealNetworks Plans Technology Pact With Sun in Move Away From Microsoft
Source: Wall Street Journal (B7)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Kara Swisher
Issue: Merger
Description: RealNetworks is forging an alliance with Sun Microsystems that
could create tension with one of its major partners and shareholders,
Microsoft. The strategic technology and marketing agreement will essentially
make RealNetworks' products work best with Sun's Solaris line of servers.
The deal with RealNetworks could give Sun an important edge because it is
unlike traditional "bundling" relationships where the software is simply
offered along with hardware without much integration. Instead, said
RealNetworks Chairman and CEO Rob Glaser, Sun and RealNetworks will
"optimize" the latest versions of its software specifically for Sun's line
of servers. "We're aiming for a dramatic improvement in performance and
scalability," said Mr. Glaser.
Title: PSINet's Quest for Independence
Source: Washington Post (Business p6)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-01/26/020l-012698-idx.html
Author: Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Issue: Mergers
Description: Over the past year most Internet service providers have agreed
to be acquired by other companies. PSINet Inc., based in Herndon, VA, on the
other hand wants to go it alone. Last week, the company's board rejected an
offer by USinternetworking Inc. to buy at least a 51 percent stake for $10 a
share, which would value the entire company at $400 million. Instead as part
of its independence strategy, PSINet decided to enter a business deal with
IXC Communications Inc., a Texes telecommunications firm. The deal will give
PSINet the right to use 10,000 miles of IXC's high-speed fiber optic cables,
which will boost PSINet's data-carrying capacity. In exchange IXC will
receive nearly a 20 percent stake, or 10 million shares, of PSINet. Alan
Bravemen, an analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston in New York, said that
PSINet's current strategy could work just fine. "Looking backward, they've
made some strategic and managerial missteps. But this IXC deal gives them a
great advantage in the market that could make them a winner in the long run."
Title: Three Giants of PC World Turn Focus to Speed
Source: New York Times (D1,D6)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/012698access.html
Author: Seth Schiesel
Issue: Infrastructure
Description: The new Internet coalition, formed to provide faster links to
the Internet over normal phone lines, will be officially announced today.
Compaq, Intel and Microsoft, the three companies that proposed the
coalition, essentially want computers that will be able to talk faster. By
working with the largest local telephone companies, they aim to control
access to the newest avenue to fast connections to the Internet.
Title: Internet Chat Rooms Becoming a Popular Forum for Business
Source: New York Times (D5)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/012698chat.html
Author: Gordon Arnaut
Issue: Internet Use
Description: There is a flurry of interest in using online chat rooms, what
many consider to be the underbelly of the Internet, as a business tool.
Companies like Merrill Lynch and IBM are experimenting with chat as a way to
interact with customers on a more personal level. While groups like the
Pristine Real Time Trading Room charge subscribers $525 a month for access
to their timely buy and sell trading instructions and opportunities. Others
see chat as a possible tool for education and training. The software
industry does not expect chat to have a major impact on business anytime in
the near future. Nevertheless, Amy Bruckman, an assistant professor at
Georgia Tech and a former researcher at the MIT's Media Lab predicts that
chat will become almost as popular for business as it is for users of online
services. "I don't think it will ever be as widely used as email. But I
think it already is and will continue to be used in serious business contexts."
Title: Internet Group Challenges U.S. Over Web Addresses
Source: New York Times (D5)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/012698domain.html
Author: Amy Harmon
Issue: Internet Domains
Description: The Council of Registrars, an international group which is led
by many of the engineers who have written the code that makes the domain
system of the Internet work, has pitted itself against the federal
government, who is currently working to release recommendations trying to
balance competing proposals about the Internet's future. It appears that the
Clinton administration is unlikely to endorse a proposal assembled by the
council to start a shared data base to register sites in seven new domains.
After hearing of this, the council resolved to go forward without the
government's involvement. But regardless of what the engineers say, the
federal government still retains nominal control over the root server which
distributes new address information to other root servers worldwide. "As the
Internet grows bigger and more international, it is not appropriate for it
to be an appendage of the U.S. government," said Ira Magaziner, the Clinton
administration's chief Internet advisor. "But we have a prime directive, and
that is to preserve the stability of the Internet. That's why we can't say,
'OK, we're getting out of it next month.'" On the other hand, Don Heath,
president of Internet Society, a nonprofit who draws most of its members
from the technical community, warned, "If the government tries to dictate
without the will of the Internet agreeing, it will not function. The
Internet works by cooperation. When there ceases to be cooperation, there
ceases to be an Internet." A member of the group said yesterday that a
meeting has been scheduled between the council and Ira Magaziner for this week.
** Antitrust **
Title: Unlike Microsoft, Intel Opts to Speak Softly on Antitrust Issues
Source: New York Times (D1,D9)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/012698intel.html
Author: Steve Lohr
Issue: Antitrust
Description: The Intel Corporation controls nearly 85 percent of the market
for the microprocessor chips of PC's, Microsoft has a similar share of the
market with its operating system for software and both companies have been
under investigation by antitrust authorities, the Federal Trade Commission
or the Justice Department, for most of the 1990's. Intel, however, has been
much more successful than Microsoft in keeping its name out of headlines and
the antitrust challenges to its market power out of federal court. Industry
executives and antitrust experts say much of this is due to Intel's cautious
and painstaking approach to the antitrust issue in its internal procedures
and public statements. Intel executives will not comment on the current
Microsoft case. But one person closest to Intel said that the company's top
executives are concerned that Microsoft's handling of the case could result
in a "potential political spillover" with Intel having to share in criticism
aimed at Microsoft. The person said, "Intel would prefer that Microsoft were
doing this in a lower-profile, less combative way."
** International **
Title: In Africa, Reality of Technology Falls Short
Source: New York Times (D1,D10)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/012698africa.html
Author: Howard W. French
Issue: International
Description: As new technologies like cellular telephones and the Internet
spread around the world, conventional wisdom in the West held that
predominantly poor countries throughout the continent of Africa would be
able to make great leaps forward by using these tools to over come one of
the most crippling legacies of underdevelopment: unreliable and
prohibitively expensive communications. While in some areas these new
technologies are proving to be indispensable, in most of the continent these
tools are haunted by the same stubborn facts of life as their predecessors,
the automobile and the telephone: with the number of have-nots greatly
out-numbering the haves, many modern innovations are passing millions of
people by. Currently, Manhattan has more telephone lines than exist in more
than three dozen countries of sub-Saharan Africa. In the Ivory Coast,
getting a new telephone line can take two to three months, and 80 percent of
all of the computers purchased there are bought by the government or private
businesses. Alin Ahounou, commercial director of Globe Access, said, "People
are very interested when you explain the Internet to them. But then they
tell you that they are still waiting for a telephone line, or that the
computer they want to buy is too expensive. In the end you realize that what
we really have here is a lack of equipment." "Whether for the equipment of
the services themselves, price stands out as the major inhibiting factor
throughout Africa, and the continent's difficult economic straits present a
cruel barrier to the very technologies that many expected would help create
an economic takeoff."
** Lifestyles **
Title: Enter Geekdom's Diaper Dandy. Sigmund, Can You Explain This?
Source: New York Times (D7)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/012698baby.html
Author: David Barboza
Issue: Lifestyles!
Description: Baby Cha Cha, better known as the Dancing Baby recently seen on
the television show "Ally McBeal," is turning into the newest, and youngest,
national pop icon. Some believe that the Dancing Baby offers insight into
the deeper aspects of American culture and the human psyche. When Camille
Paglia, the "enfant terrible of academia" was asked her opinion on this
fascination with the baby, she said, "For people to identify with a dancing
baby indicates some deep deep trauma. Young people want caretaking. They
want someone to make rules, to monitor their sex life; they want dddies. The
Dancing Baby is a self-portrait of American youth." Maryam Razvi, a
professor at the New York School for Psychoanalystic, Psychotherapy and
Psychoanalysis, was asked what Freud would have made of this diapered dynamo
with provocative gyrations. She said, "The baby clicks into something in our
unconscious. A Freudian would see this as a person's wish to exhibit, to
exhibit your freedom and your sexuality." The diapered cyberkid was created
two years ago by animators working for Kinetix, a software publisher in San
Francisco, as a demo for an animation program. Baby Cha Cha, has been
altered into such permutations as Psycho Baby, Rasta Baby, Car Crash Baby,
and Drunken Baby. It makes you wonder, if so much can be speculated about a
Dancing Baby, what do these versions say about the American culture and
human psyche?
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